Wednesday, April 16

Your King Comes to You

Morgan Jones

Reading

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Zechariah 9:9–10 (NRSV)

Reflection

I’ve been thinking a lot about kings, power, and authority lately. Maybe it’s because I’m in the Judges-to-Kings section of the Old Testament in my annual Bible reading plan. Or maybe it’s the chapter titled “The Myth of the Crown” in the book I’m currently reading. Or maybe it’s current events. Most likely, it’s a mix of all three.

I keep circling back to this idea: we humans are always looking for someone else to be in power. Whether it was the Israelites seeking an earthly ruler, the disciples hoping Jesus would enact justice through might, or modern people longing for a change in government—we’re rarely content with the powers that be.

We often believe a shift in power will create a better reality. And in some ways, it might—for a time. But the truth is, no matter who’s in charge, we can’t govern our way out of humanity’s core issues. We can’t legislate a change of heart.

Below is a lengthy excerpt from The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. It speaks to the temptation we face to wield power for our own ends rather than for God’s. It hits home for me in every realm of leadership—whether in parenting, workplace policies, or government. Formal authority can only go so far. The rest depends on relational dynamics, which ultimately reflect the hearts and character of the people involved.

“The greatest temptation to evil that humanity ever suffers is the temptation to make a ‘Jerusalem’ happen by human means. Human means are absolutely indispensable in the world as it is. That is God’s intention. We are supposed to act, and our actions are to count. But there is a limit on what human arrangements can accomplish. They alone cannot change the heart and spirit of the human being.

Because of this, the instrumentalities invoked to make ‘Jerusalem’ happen always wind up eliminating truth, or mercy, or both. World history as well as small-scale decision making demonstrates this. It is seen in the ravages of dictatorial power, on the one hand, and, on the other, in the death by minutiae that a bureaucracy tends to impose. It is well known how hard it is to provide a benign order within human means. For the problem, once again, is in the human heart. Until it fully engages with the rule of God, the good that we feel must be cannot come. It will at a certain point be defeated by the very means implemented to produce it.

God’s way of moving toward the future is, with gentle persistence in unfailing purpose, to bring about the transformation of the human heart by speaking with human beings and living with and in them. He finds an Abraham, a Moses, a Paul—a you…

…Thus, we see repeatedly portrayed in prophecy the gentleness of this government—for the first time a completely adequate government, in which the means to the good do not limit or destroy the possibility of goodness… ‘Your true king is coming to you…His word will bring peace to the nations, and his supervision will take in all lands, from where his presence is centered to the farthest reaches of the earth’ (Zech. 9:9–10). Divine presence replaces brute power, and especially power exercised by human beings whose hearts are alienated from God’s best.”
—Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 380

Practice
I invite you to spend some time in solitude with God.
Ask God to show you where you may be putting too much faith in earthly powers and institutions.
Sit quietly for a few minutes and explore your internal landscape with curiosity.
Ask for the grace to release your fears and need for control.
Close with a meditation on the divine power of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, and remember these words:
“In the presence of the Kingdom, this world is a perfectly safe place to be.”
—Dallas Willard